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Karazhan
The tower of Karazhan is an abandoned ancient fortress in an area now known as Deadwind Pass. Its most famous occupant was the Guardian of Tirisfal, the sorcerer Medivh. After Medivh was defeated by the army of Azeroth during the First War, Karazhan has been abandoned...but who knows what secrets Medivh hid in its depths, and what sort of new dangers are hidden in its echoing halls? thumb|Karazhan- the Tower of Medivhthumb|Inside the Tower = Summary = *'Location:' Deadwind Pass *'# of Players:' 10 *'Level:' 70 *'Final boss:' Prince Malchazzar. * 10 bosses. * There is a gryphon/wind rider transportation hub at the top of the tower, so you don't have to ascend it every time. * Opera house - pulling back curtains reveals a randomly chosen boss mob. * "Bizarre" library which doesn't obey the laws of physics. * Beneath Karazhan is another tower, a mirror of the one above. * A very big, scripted instance - Tigole: "You could fit 20 Shadowfang Keeps inside of Karazhan =P" * Can be (eventually) reached using the legendary caster staff Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian. * A non-winged dungeon. History Karazhan is located in Deadwind Pass on the sub-continent of Azeroth. Existing long before Medivh inhabited it, it is unknown who originally built Karazhan or who now reside within its walls. During the first war the tower was inhabited by Medivh, his cook and butler, and Khadgar. Garona was also known to stay there. Sargeras allowed Medivh to freely explore Karazhan. It is said many strange and disturbing sights roamed the tower, and the butler was known for wearing blinders to avoid seeing them. Recently, despite Medivh's absence, a new power seems to have made its home in Karazhan. The Black Riders of Deadwind Pass, though rarely seen, have a connection to Karazhan. However, no one knows who their master is. One recent sighting is cause for concern - the Black Riders seek the Scythe of Elune, a powerful artifact with the ability to summon the vile Worgen into this world. Some have speculated that these Black Riders are in fact the remnants of the original Death Knights created by Gul'dan, and that their master is the ambitious Teron Gorefiend. The fate of these Knights was unknown after the Second War. Monsters of Karazhan *Fleshbeast *Worgen Development By use of an external map viewer, it is possible to see that although the tower is empty inside, there is a smiley face painted on the ground. First description from the New York Times: :Back in the Karazhan design meeting, artists and developers were debating whether the horse heads' eyes should move to follow players exploring the area when Chris Metzen, Blizzard's vice president for creative development, poked his head in. :For 10 years, Mr. Metzen, 31, has been creating the rich stories and plotlines that have girded Blizzard's success. In his silver-rimmed sunglasses, shorts and boots', he strode to the monitor as the others explained the concept of the horse heads. :"Well, I'm not so sure it makes sense just because it's a carriage house," Mr. Metzen said. "But check it out: in Warcraft 1 it said that Lothar was part of the Brotherhood of the Horse, and I thought that was kind of lame then, but maybe a horse head will work because of that. Yeah, that's hot." :Within a few minutes, Mr. Metzen determined that the history and culture of the tower's long-dead inhabitants decreed that the architectural animal motifs progress from horse heads at the tower's base to eagle heads a bit higher, culminating in lion heads at the grand opera house. :"But don't put these heads all over the place," Mr. Metzen told an artist. "Just sprinkling them in here and there will really sell the history to the players who are paying attention." = Previews = Official Preview From Karazhan on the Official World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade site: WoW Guru * Preview at WoW Guru - not a preview of the tower section, but rather of the expansive crypts underneath. It is unknown whether these will appear in the expansion update - it is possible that they may become part of the instance. The "Upside-Down Sinners" is a particularily intriguing portion of it. Gamespot "You'll also be able to further explore the lore of Warcraft with dungeons like the haunted Karazahn Tower, the original home of the sage Medivh (who predicts the disastrous turn of events in the early part of Blizzard's strategy game Warcraft III). The lower levels of the tower are a stables, where ghostly pages groom skeletal horses, though as your party ascends higher and higher, you'll find crazier and crazier sights, like a dilapidated opera house where an audience of ghostly aristocrats awaits the appearance of a random boss monster based loosely on a character from a famous play beneath a Michelangelo-esque fresco ceiling painting of cherubic orcs in clouds." http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraftexp1/news.html?sid=6155696&page=2 MMOsite It is said that this instance contains content that your team would have to play chesses with boss. "That would be a very cool fight without any doubt, just imagine that you and your teammates playing chess with the boss in an instance, the battle is fierce and cruel while the complexion seems quite still. Sword? Spell? Maybe you will need depending on wisdom more than gears this time." http://wow.mmosite.com/content/2006-08-31/20060831232531715.shtml Info from Tigole Additional info posted by Tigole on the official forums: Karazhan is slated to be a max level, 10 person raid instance in the expansion. Its absolutely massive. Its also non-linear although it does become linear at certain points. There are at least a dozen bosses in there so far. Using the raid saving tech, well be able to make a small raid dungeon (only 10 people) where players can save their progress if they cannot do the whole thing in one night. We're trying to implement ways for them to quickly get back to where they were if theyve already made progress in the dungeon. For example, after you kill certain bosses, you can open a door thats a shortcut from the entrance. We're going to try to make that half ways up the tower work. There are some tech issues with it but we'll do our best. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=485094&p=1&tmp=1#post485094 Category:Zone:Deadwind Pass Category:Subzones Category:Instances Category:Instance:Karazhan Category:Raids Category:Burning Crusade Category:Future Zones Category:Coming Soon Category:Ruins Category:Towers